Twisted Words
by Captain Cynthia
Summary: She thinks she is prepared. She thinks that her knowledge of the show will help her. She thinks that she can figure out the secrets. She thinks she is right, but she is so wrong. Krz fdq vkh ilqg rxw wkh wuxwk derxw wklv wrzq zkhq vkh grhvq'w hyhq nqrz wkh wuxwk derxw khuvhoi?
1. A Normal Night

**AN: Hey guys. Recently, I got pretty darn obsessed with Gravity Falls. I mean, I've liked it a lot ever since it came out, but now with all these Season Two episodes, I've started reaching dangerously high fangirl levels. And guess what comes after dangerously high fangirl levels. That's right, fanfictions! This plot isn't so original, I know, but hey, you can at least give it a shot, right? Shoutout to my friend ShadowGirl0101, who was my test audience and worked with me to come up with the main plot and ideas for this story. Couldn't have done it without you! Anyway, I hope you enjoy the first chapter, because I'm warning you, this fic won't update very often. **

**And always remember, kids: reality is an illusion, the universe is a hologram, buy gold, BYE!**

Penny giggled with barely-contained excitement. Today was the day! The unbearable hiatus was over! Other shows had hiatuses so long that it just seemed like a faraway dream *cough* Sherlock *cough*, but her favorite cartoon, Gravity Falls, didn't have any episodes at all in December. Well, the episode was finally here, and Penelope was jumping with joy. She might've been in college, but that doesn't make her too old for a fantastic show like this! She even invited some of her friends over to watch, even though they don't really like those "stupid little kid cartoons" as they so eloquently put it. She called one of them again to make sure.

_Bring bring. Bring bring. _

"Uh, hello?"

"Hi friend! Are you coming to watch Gravity Falls with me? I'm done studying for tonight and I just know you got my invitation!"

"Gravity what-now? Who is this? Hello?"

"Clara, it's me, Penny!"

"Penny? I don't know anyone named Penny."

Penny laughed a bit nervously.

"Oh stop joking around Clara! We've known each other since the fourth grade. I know you don't love Gravity Falls as much as I do but it would mean the world to me if you-"

"How do you know my name? Where'd you even get this number?!"

"Haha, I get the joke. But seriously are you coming over or what?"

_Click_.

"Hmph, Clara's always joking around! I wonder how much time I have left until the episode."

Penny checked the slightly tilted clock that she never bothered to straighten and saw that it was going to air in five minutes. 'I wonder why they decided to air at midnight, Disney shows don't usually air at midnight,' Penny thought to herself, 'But maybe this is a special episode!' She quickly ran to the small, dusty TV in her tiny dorm room, avoiding obstacles such as random piles of clothing and scattered pieces of paper, and switched it to Disney XD.

"Coming up next: Gravity FaVHH BRX VRRQ LQ JUDYLWB IDOOV!" The cheerful announcer said.

"Hey, that last part sounded a little weird..." Penny thought out loud. An image flashed on the screen, and then went black. She waited for a few minutes, but nothing showed up. "Stupid outdated TV, always breaking." She sighed frustratedly, and then decided it was time to go to sleep. After all, she did have classes tomorrow! She brushed her teeth, put on her fuzzy winter pajamas, and took a book off the shelf. "A little late-night reading never hurt anyone." She got onto the torn-up couch, laid down and started to read one of her favorite books of all time, Alice in Wonderland. For some strange reason, she couldn't really focus on the words. They seemed to be distorting themselves in strange ways, getting a bit blurry and shifting around. She shrugged it off as tiredness and put the book down, but decided that staying on that couch in front of the TV was the best course of action. She _really_ didn't want to get up and move to her rickety bed. It was so cozy here, and she was quite upset at not getting to see tonight's episode.

"Aw man, I really wish I could live in Gravity Falls instead of this boring old dump."

The dim lights in the room flicked on and off for a little bit.

"Did I pay the electricity bill?" she wondered. Suddenly, the TV turned on by itself. Penny bolted up into a sitting position and turned to the TV. Good news: It seemed to be playing the new Gravity Falls episode! Bad news: it was stuck on one frame of the show, the one at the end of the opening theme. The wheel of symbols looked different, though. Almost like it had one more symbol that she didn't remember. She squinted her eyes, and leaned towards it, trying to get a better look at this, when suddenly the center of the TV glowed. Her eyes widened, and she scrambled away from it. Everything around her turned grey and colorless, except for her and the TV. She whipped her head around to check the clock on the wall, just to see it slowing down to a stop. Her heart was racing and she struggled to have a coherent thought between all her thoughts of panic.

'It'sjustadreamit'sjustadreamit'sjustadream' She tried to calm herself down, but failed to do so, as the triangle from the TV turned yellow and floated right out.

"Hi, Copper Coin!"

**R DLMWVI DSL GSRH GIRZMTOV RH...**


	2. A Demonic Dorito

**AN: Well, I've decided to put the next chapter up. Before you judge this too harshly, just remember that I write these mostly in the middle of the night when I can't sleep, or when I'm just really bored. This isn't meant to be a work of art, it's a hobby. Anyway, I hope you enjoy. **

Penelope just stared at the triangular demon with her mouth hanging open.

"B-but yo-you're-"

"Not real? A fictional character? A figment of your imagination? Deny all you want, Copper Coin, but I'm the real deal. I would introduce myself, but I guess that's not necessary, right?"

Penny shook in her seat, completely speechless. Nevermind real or not real, she'll sort that out later, but this guy is one manipulative bastard, if the show did him any justice. She had to be careful or he could trick her into doing something horrible.

"Woah, chill out, Copper Coin, I'm not gonna kill you." He floated around her, motioning his arms in a 'calm the heck down' sort of way. "But I totally could if I wanted to!" His cheerful tone of voice did not make Penny any less uneasy.

"W-why are y-you here?!" she asked, trying to make her voice slightly more even.

"Why am I here? I'm here to make a deal with you!" He appeared behind her, causing her to turn around in surprise.

"With m-me? W-why me of all people?"

"Let's just say you're part of a bigger plan, Copper Coin. And to put that plan into action, there's a certain something that I need you to do! But you can only do it through a deal."

"Why would I ever help you?" Penny gained a little courage in her voice, though in her mind she was screaming about how stupid that was. He could kill her if she says something wrong!

"Because the certain something that I need you to do is impossible for you to resist! The deal of a lifetime and all that."

"Oh yeah? What could be so 'impossible to resist' that I would end up helping out a crazy demon?"

"How about getting to live in your favorite cartoon?" He gestured towards the still-glowing screen behind her.

For a moment, Penelope didn't quite process what he just said. She blinked a few times, her eyes widened, and her mouth formed an 'o' shape. She quickly composed herself (somewhat) and asked, "What's in it for you?"

"Nevermind me, you've dreamed of this chance since you started watching that show! Heck, just before I got here you were wishing for this to happen and sighing dramatically! So what are you waiting for?" He pointed to his other hand, which had erupted into blue flames.

Penny thought about this for a bit, and told him, "Well, I'm not making a deal with anyone until I know what I'll have to give you."

"Oh, I don't need much from you. Just a small promise!"

She looked suspiciously at him. So far, this deal sounded great! But when he told Dipper that he just wanted a puppet in exchange for help with the laptop, Dipper ended up getting possessed with the laptop broken. She needed to make sure he didn't have any hidden meanings or secret intentions that will leave her hurt, dead, or worse.

"And what exactly is this promise?"

"Ah, nothing much. You just have to promise that you'll let me influence certain things that you do. Time can be pretty fragile! One wrong move while you're in there and you can blow up the entire universe. Which wouldn't be so bad for me, but you would be scattered into little bits! But if you let me tell you what to do or not to do, then your precious universe is safe and sound."

She takes a good long look at him. "Seriously? You think I'm going to let you take control of my actions just for going into some TV show world? How stupid do you think I am?" Penny challenged him, which she soon thought may not have been her best course of action. He didn't seem to be too bothered by this, though.

"Fun fact: I see the future, Copper Coin, even possible futures! And if you don't make this deal, then all possible futures lead to you getting run over by a bus in around 14 hours from now."

Penny's face froze in an expression of shock and disgust as different images of her own dead body on different roads in different situations flashed one after another on his form like a gruesome TV show. His casual way of saying this fact gave it an even bigger effect. He just HAD to have known that her biggest fear was dying, didn't he? He was using her fears against her, that was the only explanation. Or maybe she actually would've...she shook her head and stopped this train of thought.

"H-how do I know you're n-not lying?" Her stammer was back, which seemed to be exactly the effect that the triangle was hoping for.

"There's only one way to find out!" If he had a mouth, it would've definitely have been in a twisted, maniacal grin. She knew that trusting and believing his every word would be a horrible, horrible mistake. But if there's even a tiny chance of what he is saying about her demise being true...

Penny put on the bravest face that she could muster, mentally prepared herself, took a deep breath and-

"I would _never _make a deal with you!" She screamed with the energy from her pent-up fear. "Get your ugly equilateral face out of my apartment!" A moment of silence passed by. Bill blinked at her (or winked...Who can tell?).

"Well, tell me if you ever change your mind. I'll be watching you! Always watching..." On that note, he disappeared in a flash of light, and Penny woke up screaming.

**LV DQBWKLQJ UHDOOB DV LW VHHPV? RU LV LW DOO MXVW LPSRVVLEOH GUHDPV?**


	3. A Tense Time

**AN: Heya fellas! There probably aren't a whole lotta people reading this story, but I'm going to post this chapter anyway. There's a power outage so I'm posting this from my phone. Not even a lack of WiFi can stop me, MWAHAHAHAHA! Even though I barely have two or three actual readers of this story. Oh well. Enjoy this chapter! **

Penny stayed awake for the entire night after that encounter. Every time she started dozing off, she just gulped down another can of her energy drink. This reminded her of that one horror movie with teenage Johnny Depp or something. If she fell asleep, who knows what Bill would do to her?

**6:00 AM**

After many restless hours, the sun finally rose up in the sky. Penny have a weak smile at the beautiful sunrise she could just barely see out of her small window. This is the day that she is going to spend completely inside the apartment at all times, away from any kind of bus or road. Forget her classes, this was a life or death situation. At least she had the internet to keep her company. She gulped down her last remaining energy drink.

**7:00 AM**

"Why won't you just work?!" Penelope screamed at her laptop, slamming it down on the table. The laptop cheerfully gave its announcement, "No internet connection!", yet again. This time, it had a cutesy frowny face. If she was stuck inside here without anything to do, she was going to go insane! She angrily grabbed a Poptart and stuck it inside her scowling mouth.

**8:00 AM**

After an hour of frustration and a little bit of tear-shedding, Penny decided that the internet wasn't all there was to life. She grabbed a piece of paper and started doodling. She was never the best at drawing, but boy did she love doing it. She got lost in the scribbles, which made her temporarily forget about her supposed impending death. Penny wasn't even thinking anymore, just drawing. It was your usual notebook type of doodles: swirly spiral patterns, crudely drawn tornados, strangely familiar symbols. Wait, what?! She didn't remember drawing those. Penelope's tired mind struggled to remember where she saw these before. An ice bag, some glasses, a stitched up heart. She had no idea where they came from. On closer examination, she noticed a question mark and a shooting star as well. A shooting star...

**9:00 AM**

By the time 9:00 came around, she completely forgot about her drawings and turned on the tiny TV. It was still tuned to Disney channel from last night, but it didn't have any good shows on right now. She sighed, turned it back off, and flopped down on the couch. "Ow!" She had realized the hard way that she left her poke-y hard cover book on the comfy couch. Seeing this as a great source of entertainment, she picked it up. Funny, she was twice as tired as last time she tried reading it, but she could read it fine now. No more distorted letters for her! A few were jumbled up here and there, spelling out nonsense like L'P ZDWFKLQJ in between the lines. Must've been a typo in her cheap copy of the book.

Wait, this looked weird. She's read this book many times but that typo has never been there before. She examined it, her head pounding from lack of sleep, making it hard to concentrate. Oh well, she'll look at it later.

**10:00 AM**

She couldn't stop thinking about the gibberish. Was it really gibberish, or was it some sort of secret language? Or perhaps even a code...

Breaking the codes in the background of Gravity Falls made her realize that she loved doing it. By no means was she a professional, but she was usually pretty decent at this kind of stuff. However, with her headache and almost dozing off every few seconds, it was hard to do anything. But Penny decided that it was worth a shot anyway. She grabbed her book, plopped it right on the table, and got right to solving it. She started with an easy one, Atbash, just to test it out. She switched the letters and ended up with  
>O'K AWDUPOJQ. Huh. Not really a message, unless someone wanted to tell her that she was O'K. She started again, using Caeser. It was a popular cipher in the show's background, so she has had at least some experience. She wished she could just search up a decoder or something online. It was very frustrating to do it manually, but she supposed it was a lot more fun. Penny started with five letters back, to see if it would form a message that way. G'K UYRAFGLE. Even less of a word than before. She started banging her head on the table. Suddenly, she remembered the code from the show: three letters back! She tried it, just for the heck of the coincidences. As Penny deciphered the last few letters, her eyes widened. Her pencil fell smoothly to the dusty, dirty floor. She started hyperventilating and her heart pounded inside her chest.<p>

I'M WATCHING.

Exhausted, she finally passed out.

**GSV WIVZN WVNLM DZRGH ULI SRH KVMMB GL YIVZP  
>DSROV GSV HSZWLDVBV DZRGH ULI GSV IRTSG GRNV GL DZPV<strong>


	4. An Inescapable Incident

**AN: Oh my gosh, can it be? Is it possible? Updating again so soon after chapter three?! **

**Yes it is possible, and it's happening now, my very own New Years' treat for all four or so of my loyal readers! I'm not usually one to ask for reviews or follows but… it would be extremely nice to know if people actually like this story or not. So just be a dear and leave a review, if you want. You don't have to. Happy 2015, everyone! Hoverboards and crazy fashion for all!**

**2:05 PM**

"Ugh, what happened?" Penny woke up groggy and disoriented. Her surroundings seemed to distort and blur a bit, but her vision soon got back to normal. She bolted up as she suddenly realized that had fallen asleep. Her panic subsided as she recalled that Bill did not visit her dreams as she feared so much. She sighed in relief.

"Let's see," Penny thought out loud, "Bill said I would get hit by a bus 14 hours from that moment...and the moment was 12:30 am-ish, which makes 14 hours later 2:30. If I just wait until after that time, I could probably survive this day without risking anything!" She grinned in amusement. Penny would never have guessed that getting around fate was as easy as this. All she had to do was to wait around the house for around 20 minutes. And if he was lying to her about the death, well, then it was all the better! She picked up her laptop, and was delighted to find that the Internet was finally working again. Penny decided to watch Gravity Falls, because the episodes were around 20 minutes long. After finishing one, she would be free to go outside. She clicked an episode at random and it began to play. She recognized it as the beginning of Dreamscaperers, which caused her to slam the lid of her laptop down in a small panic. "Not today," she muttered, and opened it back up to put on a different episode, which just so happened to be Tourist Trapped. Her mood was improving as she watched it, and soon she was enjoying herself and even humming along to the theme song.

Her good mood was suddenly disrupted by a fire alarm and her neighbor's screams. "Fire! There's a fire! Get out of the building!" The single scream led to more people panicking and yelling and storming through the hallway. She realized that the room was getting alarmingly warmer.

"No...noooo...OH COME ON!" Penny yelled in disbelief.

She was faced with a choice: die for certain in the fire, or maybe die in a bus accident. The option that she decided on is pretty obvious, and she carefully ran down the stairs and out of the building among the huge crowd. She then took a glance at the carnage above her. The fire seemed to have spread extremely fast, engulfing the fairly large building. She looked up at her window just to see it explode into flames.

"Well, there goes all my worldly possessions." Penny muttered rather glumly. She then realized that standing still and against the flow of the crowd was apparently not her smartest move. People were pushing to get out of that area, not really caring about the safety of others, and she just so happened to be in the way. A big, hulking man had no time to look in front of him among all the commotion, and threw Penny to the side to make more room for him to squeeze through. Unfortunately, he happened to toss her right onto the busy road, where she hit the ground with a sickening _crunch_. Her entire body screamed with pain and she barely had time to look up before she heard the blaring bus horns.

"I guess this is the end." She whispered to herself, tears streaming down her face, too injured and tired to move.

And then everything just stopped. The traffic halted, the smoke from the building stayed in place, the people who were rushing to safety were now frozen.

"Or maybe not!" That voice...where was it coming from? Above her, next to her? Everything was spinning and she wanted to scream. The voice, what was it? So painfully familiar... It could only be one person.

"Bill, what do you want?" Her voice was hoarse and she struggled to say the words.

"What do _I_ want? I wanna give you a chance to reconsider the deal!"

She could see the blue flames in his hand out of the corner of her eye, but she didn't bother to turn around.

"Say, Copper Coin," he continued, "Do you want to live?"

"Why do you even need me alive?" Penny choked out.

"Forget about that, I think we have more _pressing_ matters to deal with. Remember, one snap of my fingers and you go splat!"

She needed no further convincing. "Oh for Pete's sake, YES! Just get me the _hell_ away from here." The triangle floated in front of her and held out his hand. She gladly took it and the blue flames ran up her arm.

**GSV GRNVORMV XLIIFKGH, XZM GSV FMREVIHV XLKV?**

**LMV NLIV DILMT ZXGRLM, ZMW GSV ZMHDVI RH MLKV!**


	5. A Peculiar Place

**AN: In honor of the new Gravity Falls episode (and also the fact that I haven't made an update in a while), I present to you: the new chapter! I have seen the new episode, and while I won't give away any spoilers, I will say: PREPARE YOURSELF. HOLD ONTO YOUR BLOOMERS BECAUSE THE NEXT EPISODE IS GOING TO BE A WILD RIDE. **

**Enjoy!**

As soon as the deal was made, Penelope saw her surroundings disappear in a flash. She soon found herself falling at an indeterminate speed through an inky black abyss. She couldn't see anything around her, but the air rushing past her face gave her enough hints that she was going to crash at any moment now. Bracing herself for eventual impact, she closed her eyes (which didn't make much of a difference in her vision) and scrunched up her face. After a few minutes passed without anything happening, she opened her eyes. This entire situation felt familiar, like she had seen this somewhere before, but she just couldn't remember where. Penny kept falling for at least fifteen minutes, trying to entertain herself by coming up with random stories in her head. By her totally-legit-scientific calculations, this dark space was extremely boring. Suddenly, she saw a white light.

"Oh c'mon! I escaped death TWICE in 24 hours and now this?!" She yelled to no one in particular. "Here goes nothing-"

The white light surrounds her and she fell out of the top of the Bottomless Pit. She continued lying down on the grass in front of the pit, somewhat in shock that she hasn't gone splat yet. She tried opening her eyes, but she had gotten so used to the darkness that the bright afternoon sun hurt. Eventually, she got them open. Now that she wasn't focused on falling to her almost-death, she noticed a few things:

One, she had a necklace around her neck that wasn't there before.

Two, her entire body was no longer aching from that hard fall onto concrete.

Three, for some reason, her memory was fuzzy and she couldn't think straight.

"Where am I?" She muttered in confusion, looking around at all the trees and grass everywhere. "What is this place?" She sat on the ground and tried to think. Before she was here, what was she doing? Images of the fire, Bill, and codes flashed through her mind. And she remembered.

"Oh man, I made that deal, didn't I? Stupid!" She smacked her forehead. "Well anything's better than dying, I guess. Even if I'll spend the rest of my life as some kind of slave or servant to an insane triangle." All of a sudden, she heard chattering voices and the snap of cameras. Penelope groaned. She did _not_ want to deal with tourists, especially the gullible idiots who seemed to spend their entire life savings at the Mystery Shack. Wasn't she having a bad enough day already? She stood up, brushed off her shorts, and started walking casually, if not somewhat quickly, away towards the forest.

"Hey, what're you doing way over there?"

The man in the fez leading the group yelled at her.

"Uh, sorry. I got separated from the group. I was, um, trying to find the bathroom!" She grinned nervously, hoping that he would believe her and that she could get away without being accused of trespassing or something.

"Oh yeah? Well, get back here, we're on a tight schedule!" She rushed to the back of the group while he talked about the Bottomless Pit, and how it was the most bottomless of all the bottomless pits. She started to try to figure out how exactly that worked, but then realized that she needed to leave the tour before Stan noticed that she wasn't exactly a paying customer. Penny checked her pockets to see if she even had any money, but all she found was a pack of gum. She waited until Stan's back was turned, and then ran down the road away from the tour. She then noticed that a bus was making its way towards her. Panicking a little, she instantly started moving out of its path. Luckily, this bus was slow, and she had time to get out of its way. Looking to the bus, she grinned. A way out of this place! Maybe outside of Gravity Falls, Bill would leave her alone. Technically, the deal was that she would be in Gravity Falls and there she would have to...do things that Bill tells her to do, she assumes. He was kinda vague on that part. But if she's not in Gravity Falls, then he's out of her hair forever! Oh, she was getting the hell out of here and back home. She'd find out if her college still existed in this universe and would have to apply all over again. If she got in once, she can do it again! Sitting on the dusty ground, she waited for the bus to come to a stop. The sign on it stated that it was headed towards the town instead of away from it like she had hoped. As soon as it stopped, the passengers got off the bus, and she noticed two familiar faces carrying luggage. Even though they were in real life and not cartoons anymore, she instantly knew who they were. The girl in the bright pink sweater with a shooting star on it was carrying bags covered in stickers and colors. She was standing next to a boy who looked like he was the same age as her. His bags were less decorated, and more neutral colors. His hat was dull green and had a star in the front. Penelope shook off the temptation to go chat with them. After all, it would look a bit strange for a 17 year old girl to just walk up to preteens and randomly start talking. So, she watched them leave as they greeted their great uncle and entered the Mystery Shack. She waited for at least half an hour before a town-leaving bus came. Endless amounts of tourists came, but it seems like the buses actually _leaving_ the Shack came a lot less often. She got up from her seat and dusted off the back of her pants. The wait was over, she was finally free! She ran up to the bus driver and dug through her pockets.

"Do you accept gum as payment?"

"I sure do!" The bus driver, oddly enough, took the pack of gum happily and immediately started chewing on a piece. She celebrated her victory with a fist pump. But alas, her happiness was short-lived. Just before the doors of the bus closed, an invisible force yanked her backwards and out of the bus.

"Whoops, there she goes!" The bus driver commented, not seeming surprised by this at all. Then the bus rode off into the distance, along with her hopes and dreams. She realized that the pulling force came from the mysterious necklace around her neck. Among all the events of this day, she had never really taken a look at it. The pendant was just a simple coin, a _penny_, she soon noticed. As she was holding it, it grew unbearably hot in her hands and started glowing with a weird blue light. Her surroundings grew grey once more as time slowed down to a stop. Penny recognized these circumstances instantly, and she was definitely going to scream in frustration.

"Now where do you think you're going, Copper Coin?"

**L EHW BRX WKRXJKW WKDW WKLV ZDV JRLQJ WR EH D FUHHSB PHVVDJH, ULJKW? ZHOO LW LV. ERR.**


End file.
